Hi everybody, its Saturday evening. I am about to go in and vote against the massive health care overhaul legislation. It is Saturday night; most people have been watching college football all day. Very few folks are paying attention to whats happening in Washington tonight.

And so the Democrats are trying to jam through this 2,000 page bill which has the federal government effectively taking over our health care system. Whats especially troubling about this bill, is that we do this here in the Capitol, underneath the Capitol dome, underneath the Statue of Freedom that symbolizes the principles that built this country the principles of liberty, freedom, self-determination and free enterprise the principles that our veterans fought and died for to preserve.

Unfortunately, when you see the passage of this bill, it really represents the idea that the American idea should be replaced with more of European notion of a social welfare state. My concern with the passage of this legislation is that this will move us towards a tipping point where more people are dependent upon the federal government than they are dependent upon themselves where more people are concerned about their securities, dependencies, and government benefits than their own freedoms and liberties.

We believe in the American idea. The American idea is that this country is the land of opportunity, where you have access to the opportunity to make the most of your lives. We dont want to turn our safety net system into a hammock that lulls people into lives of complacency, of dependency.

I for one believe the American people are beginning to stand up and see whats happening. I believe, based on what I have seen in this country in just the last few months that the American people see whats happening to their country, are taking notice, and are going to take action.

We need to give the American people a choice. Do you want this notion, this kind of legislation that is moving through this body that brings us toward a social welfare state? Or do you want your representatives in Washington to go back and reclaim the Founders vision? To take those principles that created this country principles that are enduring, that are timeless, that our veterans fought for, that give us the kind of liberty and freedom that have given us the ability to be the most prosperous country in the world. That is a choice I think the American people will make.

I for one think that the American people are the salvation of this country, and the ideals that it was built upon. If we offer the American people a clear choice, I believe they will make that right choice.

But right now, in the dark of night, what we are seeing is an agenda being jammed through basically what I call the third wave of progressivism. You saw it with the New Deal and the Great Society and now the attempt is to give us the third and final great wave of progressivism to finish the completion of replacing the American ideal with the social welfare state. Thank you.